Orphan Jackfruit Needs a Home. Do You Have Space in Your Pantry?

Jackfruit -- especially in these parts -- normally comes in cans. Also known as Artocarpus heterophyllus, the bumpy green humongous fruit is produced by a tree native to southern Indian and Southeast Asia that's a cousin of the mulberry. It's also the largest fruit in the world.

Jackfruit can be canned in syrup, making it sweet and suitable for salads and desserts, or in brine, which makes it perfect for its most common usage seen in local restaurants -- in curries. As a substitute for meat in that context, it's unsurpassed.

Ripe jackfruit tastes something like a starchy and slightly sweet banana. It can be cut up and fried in chips, used to flavor and thicken custards, or simply eaten plain.

If you buy this rare specimen -- seen at a greengrocer near the corner of Grand and Bowery -- you can do do all these things with it and more. Estimated weight is 30 pounds, making it medium size for a jackfruit.

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Jackfruit is also found in the Caribbean.When ripe, it's deliciously sweet.Inside are thumb-size pods or sections, deep yellow and just a bit chewy.It also has big seeds that are edible.In many countries, jackfruit is eaten green, treated as a vegetable. Once in Malaysia, I saw jackfruit for sale on the roadside, but they were all green.I asked for a ripe one, which apparently was an unusual request.Someone went back into the forest and a cut one for me.